Page 139 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

European Accounts of Muscat 129
originates scheme for settlement at Muscat. He is sending
Colonel Henry Rainsford and ‘if it pleases God to make him
so happy as to compass the commaund of the castle upon any
reasonable tearmes, wee arc confident that there is no place
upon these northern seas that can prove so profitable for to
gainc your right of the customs due to you in Persia, but to
commaund all the princes hereabouts to carry a faire
correspondence with your people; otherwise you may right
your selves upon their jounks as they enter the Gulfe of
Persia.’ The Imam had apparently agreed that the castle
should be delivered to the British and we should keep not
more than 100 soldiers there and have part of the town to live
in. Rainsford died in May. In September Surat asked Madras
if it could spare troops for Muscat.
1660 Factories, xi, 250. January. Surat says that the King has gone
back on his word. The Shawbunder says that we can have a
factory but not the fort.
Factories, xi, 306. April. Surat urges again to EIC ‘Twill be a
very beneficial place and keepe both India and Persia in awe:
but withal very unwholesome, that its commanders and chief
officers must be changed often and the place supplyed with
common soldiers largely for death is very familiar there’.
Factories, xi, 320. EIC rebukes Surat for action ‘altogether to
our dislike’.
1665 Factories, xii, 78. Indian pirate Sivaji attacked factory at
Karwar but ‘thanks be to God, we were able to clap all the
Corapanie’s ready money, etc., aboard a shipp belonging to
the Hummum of Muscat being there in the river’. It was 100
tons and commanded by Emmanuel Donnavado.
1669 Factories, xiii, 211. Muscat Arabs seize boat taking an
Ambassador from King of Siam to Persia. They later released
him and his goods but not the ship.
1672 The Voyages and Travel of J. Struys, London, 1684, 352-3.
Visited in July. ‘A fair Haven’. ‘On the side next the sea is
also an earthen Wall thrown up since it had been under the
jurisdiction of the King of Persia; for before it was but an
open town, except for some small Towers the Portugeezes had
built to check the savage Arabs.’ ‘On the right hand as you
enter the Haven is a Fort upon a steep Hill, which for its
Fortification by Nature seems to be impregnable. The same
Fort is also sufficient to command and deffend the whole
Haven: It has also a privat way leading to the Haven
underground.’ It has a large population. ‘In the Moneths of
August and September it is here so incredible hot and
scorching, that I am not able to express the condition that
strangers are in, being as if they were boiling Cauldron or in
sweeting Tubs, so that I have known many who were not able